upper country, I had the pleasure of receiving your report on the public lands, which I have read with attention. The subject is of immense interest, and has long produced and is still producing great excitement.

My sentiments concur entirely with those contained in the report, which are so clearly and so well expressed that it must, I think, be approved by a great majority of Congress. Unanimity is not to be expected in anything.

I thank you for this mark of attention, and am with great and respectful esteem your obedient servant,

J. MARSHALL.

LETTER 31 FROM CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL TO

DEAR SIR:

HENRY CLAY

WASHINGTON, March 13, 1833.

My nephew, Marshall Jones purposes to remove to New Orleans with a view to the practice of the law, and is, I believe, now in that place. The circumstances under which he left Virginia increase my solicitude for his success. A personal rencounter with a young gentleman who had abused him wantonly and grossly terminated very unfortunately in the death of his adversary. This compelled him to fly from Virginia and from very flattering professional prospects. After visiting Canada and Texas, he has at length, I am told, determined on trying his fortune in New Orleans. I am extremely desirous of promoting his object, but with the exception of Mr. Johnston, am not acquainted with a single individual in that place. May I ask the favor of you to mention him to some of your friends, not as a person known to yourself, but as my friend and relation whom I strongly recommend. I have the most entire confidence in his honor, integrity, and amiable qualities; and shall feel myself greatly obliged by your bestowing on him so much of your countenance as may favor his introduction into society and his professional exertions. For the rest, he must depend upon himself. With great respect and esteem, I am, dear sir, your obedient servant,

31 Ibid., pp. 352-353.

J. MARSHALL.

LETTER 32 FROM JOHN MARSHALL, SUBSEQUENTLY CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES, TO JAMES IREDELL RICHMOND, Dec. 15th, '96.

DEAR SIR:

I had not the pleasure of receiving till yesterday your favor of the 3d instant. Since then, I have seen the votes of North Carolina, and you, I presume, those of Virginia. Mr. Adams would have received one other vote had Mr. Eyre really been elected, but he was left out by accident. There was supposed to be no opposition to him, and in consequence of that opinion the people in one county, on the eastern shore, did not vote at all, and in the other a very few assembled. On the day of election the people of Princess Ann, whose Court day it happened to be, assembled in numbers, and elected Mr., who voted for Mr. Jefferson. From that gentleman you will have heard there were twenty votes for Mr. Samuel Adams, fifteen for Mr. Clinton, three for Burr, Gen. Washington one, Mr. Pinckney one, and Mr. John Adams one. I received a letter from Philadelphia, stating that five votes south of the Potomac would be necessary to secure the election of Mr. Adams. It is then certain that he cannot be elected. Our assembly, which you know is in session, displays its former hostility to federalism. They have once more denied wisdom to the administration of the President, and have gone so far as to say in argument, that we ought not by any declarations to commit ourselves, so as to be bound to support his measures as they respect France. To what has America fallen! Is it to be hoped that North Carolina will, in this particular, rather adopt such measures as have been pursued by other States, than tread the crooked paths of Virginia?

I have received a letter from Mr. Dallas, and will furnish him with my argument in the case of the British debts. I expect to be under the necessity of getting the opinions of the Judges, except yours, from Mr. Dallas, whose report of the case will be published before mine.

With very much respect and esteem,

I am, dear sir,

Your Obed't J. MARSHALL.

82" Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, One of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States," by Griffith J. McRee, Vol. II, pp. 482-483.

LETTER 33 FROM CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL ADDRESSED TO THE REV. R. R. CURLEY, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY

DEAR SIR:

RICHMOND, Dec. 14, 1831.

I received your letter of the 7th, in the course of the mail, but it was not accompanied by the documents you mention.

I undoubtedly feel a deep interest in the success of the Society, but, if I had not long since formed a resolution against appearing in print on any occasion, I should now be unable to comply with your request. In addition to various occupations which press on me very seriously, the present state of my family is such as to prevent my attempting to prepare anything for publication.

The great object of the Society, I presume, is to obtain pecuniary aid. Application will undoubtedly be made, I hope successfully, to the several State Legislatures by the societies formed within them respectively. It is extremely desirable that they should pass permanent laws on the subject, and the excitement produced by the late insurrection makes this a favorable moment for the friends of the Colony to press for such It would be also desirable, if such a direction could be given to State Legislation as might have some tendency to incline the people of color to migrate. This, however, is a subject of much delicacy. Whatever may be the success of our endeavors to obtain acts for permanent aids, I have no doubt that our applications for immediate contributions will receive attention. It is possible, though not probable, that more people of color may be disposed to migrate than can be provided for with the funds the Society may be enabled to command. Under this impression I suggested, some years past, to one or two of the Board of Managers, to allow a small additional bounty in lands to those who would pay their own passage in whole or in part. The suggestion, however, was not approved.

It is undoubtedly of great importance to retain the countenance and protection of the General Government. Some of our cruisers stationed on the coast of Africa would, at the same

33 At the Fifteenth Annual Meeting of the American Colonization Society, January 16, 1832, in the Hall of the House of Representatives of the United States, to a packed house the above letter was read with others from Lafayette, Ex-President James Madison, and others. Many great men were unable to gain admittance on account of the large crowd.

I

time, interrupt the slave trade a horrid traffic detested by all good men, and would protect the vessels and commerce of the Colony from pirates who infest those seas. The power of the government to afford this aid is not, I believe, contested. regret that its power to grant pecuniary aid is not equally free from question. On this subject, I have always thought, and still think, that the proposition made by Mr. King, in the Senate, is the most unexceptionable, and the most effective that can be devised.

The fund would probably operate as rapidly as would be desirable, when we take into view the other resources which might come in aid of it, and its application would be, perhaps, less exposed to those constitutional objections which are made in the South than the application of money drawn from the Treasury and raised by taxes. The lands are the property of the United States, and have heretofore been disposed of by the government under the idea of absolute ownership. The cessions of the several States convey them to the General Government for the common benefit without prescribing any limits to the judgment of Congress, or any rule by which that judgment shall be exercised. The cession of Virginia indeed seems to look to an apportionment of the fund among the States, “according to their several respective proportions in the general charge and expenditure." But this cession was made at a time when the lands were believed to be the only available fund for paying the debts of the United States and supporting their Government. This condition has probably been supposed to be controlled by the existing constitution, which gives Congress power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territories or the property belonging to the U. States. It is certain that the donations made for roads and colleges are not in proportion to the part borne by each State of the general expenditure. The removal of our colored population is, I think, a common object, by no means confined to the slave States, although they are more immediately interested in it. The whole Union would be strengthened by it, and relieved from a danger, whose extent can scarcely be estimated. It lessens very much in my estimation the objection in a political view to the application of this ample fund that our lands are becoming an object for which the States are to scramble, and which threatens to sow the seeds of discord among us in

66

stead of being what they might be a source of national wealth.

I am, dear sir, with great and respectful esteem,
Your obedient servant,

J. MARSHALL.

TO CHARLES CARTER

MY DEAR SIR:

RICHMOND, May 8th, 1833.

Your letter of the 27th of April reached me two or three days past. Let me congratulate you on the equanimity with which you contemplate your [the next few words are illegible] rocks and mountains. They can be rendered pleasant by one step and by one only. That your own feelings will readily suggest, and will urge upon you with irrestible force.

Mr. Pendleton died on the 23d of October 1803. I do not know his age exactly. He was about eighty. I am uncertain whether he had completed his 80th year or was to it. I do not know whether he wrote the political article suggested to him by Mr. Jefferson in his letter of Jan. 29 & Feb. 24. So many essays appear on that subject that my memory does not retain them. I have however no recollection that any one of them was ascribed to Mr. Pendleton.

The long home letter was a subject of much conversation at the time. I know of no person who is intimately acquainted with all its inner [the next few words are illegible] but Col. John Nichols. It is possible that he may have retained a copy of it. If he has not a copy it might be found in the papers published by Augustine Davis but I know not where that paper is to be found.

Mr. Sujt has received a letter from your brother making enquiries respecting this letter, and I have referred him to Col. Nichols. It was generally ascribed at the time to Mr. Carr.

I suspect the intention of attacking your brother's observations on the writings of Mr. Jefferson is abandoned. I am inclined to believe that the friends of the gentleman are willing to permit the subject to sink into oblivion if possible.

I believe that the reference of Mr. Ritchie to a paper published by Mr. Pendleton was to one written by him after the election of Mr. Jefferson which was headed "The danger not